Harrogate Offers A Public Apology

Harrogate is going to keep this short. Mostly because the person he needs to apologize to has no idea about the existence of this blog. But the truth is that in the past, Harrogate has several times maligned the blog, Little Green Footballs, as a far right extremist website.

This was never true, though at the time Harrogate sincerely thought it was. But since Obama's victory it has become quite clear that this blog, run by Charles Johnson, is a firecely centrist blog, far more centrist philosophically that Harrogate himself. Johnson has taken a brave stand against the Right who loved him during the Bush years, with respect to defending science and civil liberties for all. Harrogate disagrees with LGF's view of the international landscape and what to do about it, but that does not excuse the caricature with which he has painted LGF in the past.

Having followed the blog for the last few months, Harrogate apologizes.

Friday Musical Tribute; or, Texas State Board of Education Races to the Bottom, Seeks to Institutionalize Creationism

Sigh

Texas has earned a reputation as an innovation powerhouse in fields ranging from agriculture and life sciences to high technology and space exploration.

But in a report issued this summer, a panel of Texas business, education and government leaders warned that without "critical changes" in state schools — especially in science-related instruction — the state will lose its global competitive edge.

It appears, however, that some members of the State Board of Education are working on a different agenda. Last week, they appointed three anti-evolution activists, including a leader of the "intelligent design" religious campaign, to a six-member panel that will review proposed new science curriculum standards.

The new standards will shape how science education is taught in Texas for the next decade, and it would be a terrible mistake to water down the teaching of evolution in any way.

Given the concerns about the state's future work force, the appointments are a troubling signal. At a time when most educators are working to prepare students for 21st century jobs, the board members' action threatens to confuse students, divide communities and tarnish Texas' reputation as an international science and technology center.

This linked article does a good job laying out the pedagogical and Enlightenment-based arguments for why Texas' parents need to put a stop to what these people are trying to do.

Now, Harrogate humbly offers a Humanistic Argument against the Evolution Deniers:

They prosecuted some poor sucker in these United States
For teaching that man descended from the apes
They coulda settled that case without a fuss or fight
If they'd seen me chasin' you, sugar, through the jungle last night
They'da called in that jury and a one two three said
Part man, part monkey, definitely

Who cares about the election...

When the Earth will be swallowed in its entirety by a man-made black hole.

Tomorrow, scientists will turn on the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator, to attempt to recreate the effects of the Big Bang by crashing protons into each other.

I guess that I feel better knowing that scientists, and not John McCain or the Republican Party, will end the world.

To Progress...